Thursday, October 23, 2008

'United States Scapegoated Libya': Tam Dalyell

Tam Dalyell was a Labour member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. During his rather astonishingly long career in the House, Dalyell has led no less than 17 Adjournment debates on the Lockerbie bombing, in which he repeatedly demanded answers by the government to the reports of Hans Kochler, the United Nations observer at the Lockerbie Trial. His latest comments are extraordinary. "If I thought there was any scintilla of possibility that he was guilty of mass murder, I might agree with Ruth Cohen, the intransigent American relative, who says she has no pity. But the American relatives, intent on vengeance, should understand that the United States scapegoated Libya, a country which had nothing whatever to do with the Lockerbie crime, at a time when they wanted to blame someone, small and unpopular, in order not to have trouble with Iran and Syria, who harboured the real perpetrators, before the planned invasion of Iraq," Dalyell wrote."The dreadful question has to be asked -- if Mr Megrahi's illness is as terminal as is indicated in medical bulletins, what happens now? Do we just sweep it under the carpet; do we allow it to evaporate or go away? Certainly not, say some of us. The issue is not only Mr Megrahi, but the integrity and good name of the Scottish legal system." Read full story